OK. It’s been a LONG time since I have posted to this blog, this isn’t the first time this has happened. I am sure it would be a lot less noticeable if there were other people contributing to this, but for whatever reason nobody else seems to stick around longer than a few posts. That being said, I am recommitting myself to this blog. I’ll start off with some recent art and culture events that have transpired since the hiatus.

The Dallas Contemporary Opens in its New Location on Glass St.
Although the opening was postponed, The Dallas Contemporary set it off in their new spot with a solo exhibition by LA based artist James Gilbert. Gilbert’s exhibition, Warnings and Instructions, has been extended through the Wish! auction on May 15th. If you haven’t seen this show get on it. This is by far one of the most ambitious installation pieces Dallas has seen in a long time.
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POPUP 310 Opens in the West Village
On February 13, 2010 James Cope (associate curator of the Goss-Michael Foundation) and I started a pop up art space in the West Village which was occupied by Gardens until their abrupt exit from the WV. The project has been an ever-changing group show of artwork by emerging and established artists, with the focus of the project on entry level collecting. Upcoming events include a fashion event with V.O.D. at the helm, a live performance by Psycho Pony and our big huge farewell party with FD Luxe on June 5th. For all of the details hit the POPUP 310 BLOG.
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Holly Johnson Gallery Turns 5Holly Johnson Gallery celebrated 5 years this past March with a group show titled, Back and Forth: Celebrating 5 Years. A solo show of Houston artist David Alysworth opens this Saturday, so go by and check out the show and wish her a happy belated anniversary.
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Goss-Michael Foundation is moving on up
Michael Craig-Martin closed out The Goss-Michael Foundation’s Cedar Springs location in fine style. It was fitting that the YBA mentor be the final show in this space. His was by far the most well considered exhibition since the foundation formed in 2007. They will reopen this fall in a 12,000 square foot space in the lower oak lawn area. For more details visit their site at gossmichaelfoundation.org
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Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas Adds 3 New Members
After the closing of the Art Lab and several of its member galleries, there was a lot of speculation about whether or not the group known as CADD (Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas) would be able to bounce back. With the addition of PDNB, 500 X and Galleri Urbane, as well as a fall line up of events (which will be announced soon), the group seems to have rebounded quite nicely.
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Houston Artist Lane Hagood wins 2010 Hunting Art Prize
This past weekend was the Hunting Art Prize Gala in Houston. In short this art prize is the most generous offered in North America at the tune of $50,000. The competition is open to Texas based artists and is limited to drawings and paintings. The unique thing about the prize is that it is awarded based off of a single image. The pedigree and name of the artists are not known to the panel of judges, which is an effort to keep everyone on equal footing. Of the 1,400 entries a little less than 10% move on to the final round of judging. I was a finalist for the prize this year, so I decided to take the trip down. The gala was really impressive. I found that most of the work was good, even if it wasn’t my taste, it was well done and the people attending were friendly. As finalists we were encouraged to stand around our painting for most of the evening. I did that for about 10 minutes and decided that wasn’t for me. This decision was made easier given that my piece had sold 2 days before. The winner’s piece, Books I Have Possessed, was a clever painting and definitely stood out in the section where it hung. More importantly, Lane Hagood, in my brief assessment, is a good dude and the prize will certainly give him a much needed financial boost, as at the podium he reported having $178 in his bank account. I will definitely be entering next year to try and bring the prize back to Dallas.
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That’s it for now. I will be back tomorrow with this week’s art openings and some stuff on the retail and restaurant front.

Last week I swung by the Goss-Michael Foundation to meet my good friend James Cope for lunch. They had just put the finishing touches on their upcoming show featuring Marc Quinn, and I had a chance to take a look around. This is an incredible show, and I believe it is the best exhibition the foundation has mounted to date, that says a lot since they have hosted the likes of Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Noble and Webster and Richard Patterson among others.

Here are the details…
The exhibition runs from September 24, 2009-January 23, 2010…Plenty of time to work this in your schedule.

Best part about next Saturday is that will be the first day the Dart “Green Line” will be in effect. This has been a long time coming, so why not park your car, go all Quad City DJs and, “get on the train and ride it!” The Reel FX + Brad Oldham “Travelling Man” collaboration (pictured above) is a sight to see, as is Frank Campagna and crew’s ode to the Deep Ellum tunnel, which is across the street from the man.

Like I said, galleries load it up for the fall. My favorite Brit, James Cope is serving up some real bangers and mash at the Mac with his show Blueline, while Dale Chihuly, the often imitated never duplicated, glass blower kicks off the fall at Dunn and Brown. Keep an eye out (pun intended), because this one opens on a THURSDAY. For all of you who love vintage technology, Dan McPharlin is holding it down in a huge way at Conduit, with his sculptures in the project room. Beloved Dallas artist Otis Jones is opening a solo show at Holly Johnson Gallery, while Howard Sherman (H-Town Represent) is gonna be sittn’ crooked in his slab at Pan American. Newly crowned MFA champ Sarah Williams steps into the ring for her solo heavyweight debut at Marty Walker Gallery, while wooden pixel pusher Shawn Smith sets it off at Craighead-Green. Head north for a walkie-talkie at Valley House Gallery and Sculpture Garden with Mary Vernon. And finally, in the immortal last words of Billy Batts in Goodfellas,”Go home and get your fu@#in’ shine box” because PDNB’s Burt Finger has laced up a collection of vintage shoeshine boxes coupled with photos from the 30s to the 70s of the entrepreneurs who used them. Part 2 is coming up next week so stay tuned in to find out what is happening in Deep Ellum and the O.C.

You’ve no doubt by now noticed that the sites got a bit of a re-design and some things got changed around last week. We wanted to highlight two changes to make sure everyone knows what changed.

The first and biggest is COMMENTS! Registration is no longer required to post a comment on any post. Of course if you already have an account you can still login to ensure your comments are attributed to you, but those who don’t can now post a comment without any long term commitment. Also, on the right you can see some of the recent comments so you’ll always know what the active discussions are. This was the most requested thing we’ve heard from people since our last redesign and we’re excited to see where it leads.

The next change is also something that was heavily requested, and that is a change to the ADS on the sites. You’ll immediately notice fewer of them, but what might not be as obvious is those smaller square ones to the right are specific to this city only and are being sold for a flat rate for a period of time rather than a confusing CPM/traffic/network model. Depending on the city, these range from $7-$175 for a full week. If you purchase one, during that time your ad will be the only one in that spot and will show on every page. We set these up both to make it easier for smaller local businesses to get their ads on our site, and also to help us bring in ads that relate better to our local audiences. Also, keeping these sites online is expensive and every little bit helps.

There are a bunch of other things we changed but we’ll leave those to you to investigate and take advantage of. Hope you like it, and we look forward to seeing you in the comments!!

After a year which consisted of 6 exhibitions, great educational programming and 7,000 visitors, CADD (The Contemporary Art Dealers of Dallas is vacating the Art Lab in Downtown. My gallery is one of the founding member galleries of this organization. I personally have designed everything from the logo to the 3 art guides CADD has released. That was quite a trail we blazed in between Neiman Marcus and The Joule Hotel, and I am sad to see it come to a close. I hate to blame it on the economy, but sustainability was an issue. I realize that times are tough, but if Dallas doesn’t support the culture in this city, there will be very little left after the recovery. I think the psychology of the recession is causing this wave of frugality amongst people who haven’t suffered the same loss as others, mainly those I am now going to discuss.

Here is a list of some of the places I have found myself at either grabbing a drink or a bite this summer: The Old Monk, The Idle Rich, Meridian Room, Libertine, Toulouse, Cowboy Chow, Twisted Root, Social House, The Porch, Lakewood Landing, Bolsa and Cafe Madrid among others.

This represents a pretty good sampling of Dallas: Expo Park, Deep Ellum, Uptown, Knox-Henderson, Lower Greenville, Oak Cliff and Lakewood. Most of the times I was at any of these places it was pretty packed out and people were spending money. I would consider most of the people at these places as people who I could see frequenting and patronizing art galleries, and some of them probably do, but a majority don’t. Why is that?

Art is a great investment. Although this investment can be lucrative, that is not what I am referring to, but rather how much investing in art can enrich your life. I remember the places I lived in that were sans art, and the house that my wife and I have that is filled with it, the difference is massive. Art is a way to engage with people, it sparks stimulated conversation and debate. Art galleries are the best place to meet quality people. There is a certain amount of effort required to know where good galleries are and when they are having openings. These people are the same people that take you to amazing restaurants that you have never heard of. That great feeling you get when you go to a place before it gets all blown out, never goes away with galleries.

The fall is the best time for galleries, we book our best shows then. Although the Art Lab will soon be no more, visit caddallas.net for a list of the best galleries in Dallas. Come out this fall and test the waters, the drinks are on us. And when you hang that first print, drawing or painting you pick up, get ready because people will be jockin’ you like crazy…guaranteed.

Christina Rees, director of Road Agent, recently published 2 articles entitled State of the Union parts 1 and 2 on glasstire. In a nutshell, the first article was a personal account of how the economy has affected her gallery, some thoughts about how everyone else is doing and what Dallas’ elite collectors should do about it. Part 2 is an in-depth exploration of what running a gallery is like and the types of collectors that are out there, and what they should be doing to support galleries.

At the end of the second article a person commented on Herb and Dorothy Vogel. Herb and Dorothy started collecting from today’s leading contemporary artists before they were famous. This was also before a lot of them had representation and before many of today’s superpower galleries had even opened their doors. They bought small and they bought often. They continued to support these artists throughout their careers, whether by attending every opening in Chelsea or buying small works from the galleries. They had an eye for minimalism, but still maintained a diverse collection. The point is that they did this on the combined salary of a librarian and a postal worker.

The moral of the story is that collecting art is not just for the social elite. I have seen so many people who have little resources be more fashionable than those who can afford any designer label. Being on the pulse is not about dollars, it’s about sense. The same is true of art. If you love it, go and and take some in. Check out your local galleries. Right now I am looking at 8 framed drawings by a well known artist that are $300-$350 framed. In the other room there are original prints starting at $30, if $300 sounds too rich.

I have sold so many people their first piece of art, the reaction is the purist joy I have ever seen (as it relates to commerce). You will never make another purchase like it. There is this ultimate satisfaction that comes with supporting the arts. You directly impact the life of an artist. It is encouraging when an artist sells work. It motivates them to make better work, those sales keep their gallery’s doors open. In turn the gallery continues to develop the artist’s career, museums take note, they are awarded grants and residencies. Before you know it, that piece you bought for $300 five years ago is now going for $1500 or more. Speculative investment is not the reason to buy, you should buy what you love. The point is that original art and prints will never be worth less than what you pay for them, unlike that wall decoration for $300 for at Z Gallerie.

I am a little late in posting this, but it was kind of a shocker and it has been difficult to deal with.

On Thursday June 26th, Andrew Sie unexpectedly passed away at the age of 48. Andrew was half of Light and Sie the beautiful contemporary art gallery that he ran with business partner and long time friend Stanley Light. In his short time as director of Light and Sie he produced 11 exhibitions with an amazing group of artists and curators. He had a wealth of knowledge about the art world that ran as deep as his passion for the work itself.

Andrew was a colleague of mine, but moreover he was a friend. It was fitting that the last time I saw him was at the gallery during an opening, I along with many others will miss Andrew dearly.

Long time no post… I have a good reason, on March 21st I got married, then Honeymoon, moving, plus everything else I have going on= no time to blog. I am back in the saddle and what better way to do so than with a whole lot of art openings.

Normally I would just list one of my gallery’s openings along with the other openings, however this one is different. I can’t begin to tell you what a tremendous influence and inspiration the work of Charley Harper has had on me as an artist and designer. The man had one of the most sophisticated color palettes ever, and I don’t even know where to start when it comes to his imagery, just completely amazing.

Let’s face it, times are tough. What better way to cope than by looking at artwork and flossin’ with that V.I. feel you get when drinks are on the house. For more info about the galleries and the exhibitions visit their respective websites.

I will say something about this first opening.
Richard Patterson is a British artist who happens to be based in Dallas. He is an amazing painter who rose to prominence within a group of artists known as the YBA’s (Young British Artists). Some of the other well known YBA’s include Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Sarah Lucus, Gary Hume, the late Angus Fairhurst and Fiona Rae. I am not going to give you an art history lesson, but these artists are a big deal (just ask the internet), and one of them is among us, so don’t sleep on this one.

MK and Hugo are friends of mine, and they have a great spot in the O.C. called Decorazon Gallery. I highly recommend this opening, Kathleen Wilke’s photos are quite incredible, and if memory serves me correctly, they are priced at a fraction of what you think they would or should be, gotta love those emerging artists.Decorazon: Kathleen Wilke, Wendy Kveck & Jane Fulton Alt
Opening Reception Sat. Jan. 17 (6-9PM)
417 North Bishop Avenue, Dallas TX 75208
214.946.1003 // decorazongallery.comimage: Kathleen Wilke, from her Lady of the Lake series
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Having spent nearly a decade living in Denton, there are 2 things I know for certain. One, the best music in Dallas isn’t in Dallas, it is in Denton. Two, people in Dallas never drive to Denton for anything. Which is why everyone should go to the Sons of Hermann Hall this Saturday for their Salute to Little D.

Here is the Line Up…
Doug Burr, Dust Congress, Robert Gomez and The Baptist Generals.
Tickets are $10 and you can get them in advance at frontgatetickets.com

The show is listed as a Doug Burr show, on the 17th at Sons of Hermann Hall. There aren’t too many live music acts (local or touring) that I am looking forward to in the coming months, so don’t miss out.
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This one is long overdue…DJ Sober of The Party has finally released his first official mixtape. Well it actually isn’t a tape, it’s a cd, but you get the idea. This one is a freebie, and guaranteed to be free of horn and gunshot samples, so pick one up at the next Zubar gig. You can find info on that and all of their other shows at centralbooking.blogspot.com
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It’s that time again, time for another round of art openings. For more info about the galleries and the exhibitions visit their respective websites. This is also a good opportunity to shake the aforementioned money makers.

PDNB: Bill Owens: New Suburbia
This show has been extended through January
1202 Dragon Street, Suite 103, Dallas, TX 75207
214.969.1852 // pdnbgallery.comimage: Sunday afternoon we get it together. I cook the steaks and my wife makes the salad. 1971
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